Background The onset of the Corona Virus Diseases of 2019 (Covid19) pandemic has led to debates on the relevance of country-wide lockdowns as tools for responding to this pandemic. This commentary contributes to this debate by focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Thus the aim here is to interrogate the relevance of total country lockdowns in responding to the Covid19 pandemic in SSA. A search of existing literature in academic journals was done in order to build the premise of the commentary. The search included capturing publications that focused on Covid19 with relevance to SSA; through this process, 8 publications were identified and included in the study.